Benny Napoleon asks Krystal Crittendon to serve as Detroit deputy mayor if he is elected

Oct. 6, 2013

Then-Detroit mayoral candidate Krystal Crittendon speaks with a reporter before a prayer service on the eve of the primary election on Aug. 5 at Kingdom Builders Christian Church in Redford Township. Benny Napoleon has asked Crittendon to be his deputy mayor if he wins the November election. / Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon has asked former top city attorney and mayoral contender Krystal Crittendon to be his deputy mayor as he ramps up his bid to become the city’s next top elected official.

“He did ask,” Crittendon said Sunday, confirming a report in the Michigan Citizen newspaper that Napoleon told a meeting of the Michigan chapter of the civil rights group National Action Network on Saturday that he requested that she run as his No. 2.

“I am going to seriously consider it,” she said, “but I am going to work hard to ensure that the sheriff gets elected mayor of Detroit in the meantime.”

Crittendon finished third in the city’s Aug. 6 mayoral primary, according to state-certified results of the election. Former Detroit Medical Center CEO Mike Duggan, running as a write-in, won more than 50% of the vote, with Napoleon at 30% and Crittendon at 5.6%.

If Crittendon accepts the offer, Napoleon could see a boost in support from Crittendon voters attracted to her vehement stance against the state’s intervention in Detroit that now includes the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in American history.

Crittendon challenged the legality of a 2012 consent agreement between the state and the city meant to ward off appointment of an emergency manager, a deal that failed to prevent Gov. Rick Snyder’s decision to appoint Kevyn Orr as EM as the city’s finances collapsed.

Crittendon was demoted from corporation counsel to a civil service position in the city’s Law Department by Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council under pressure from state officials angered by her legal battle.

She argued that the state owes the city $224 million in revenue-sharing and other money, and her campaign drew support from critics battling state intervention.

Napoleon is stepping up his campaign, telling voters that his longtime career in law enforcement will help him reduce crime by 50% in his first term and emphasizing an economic development strategy that he said will focus on the city’s neglected neighborhoods, rather than supporting revitalization of downtown and Midtown.

Napoleon is to unveil his neighborhood revitalization plan, “Detroit’s Neighborhood Growth Strategy: Transforming Every Neighborhood One Square Mile at a Time,” during a public meeting at 6 p.m. Monday at Peace and Goodwill Missionary Baptist Church, 20500 Moross in Detroit.

Napoleon is to call for public-private partnerships to grow Detroit neighborhoods, investment incentives to create more jobs in the city, and efforts to reduce crime and blight.

Napoleon was the running mate of lawyer and then-City Councilwoman Sharon McPhail in her 2005 bid for Detroit mayor. He served as Detroit’s police chief under former Mayor Dennis Archer.